Cranberry-separator



W E. TRUFANT.

CRANBERRY SEPARATOH.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 27, 1919. RENEWED OCT. 5, 1919.

Patented May 4, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEETI waww W. E. TRUFANT.

CRANBERRY SEPARATOR. 7

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 27, I919. RENEWED OCT. 9, 1919.

1,339,077, Patented May 4,1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET '2.

I IE f 77 U 7: l q V a 72 7Z3 A/ITMEEEE' I 'lhk/EJTEIR- WALTER E. TR'UFANT, 0F WHITMAN, MASSACHUSETTS.

CRANBERRY-SEPARATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 4, 1920.

Application filed March 27, 1919, Serial No. 285,565. Renewed October 9, 1919 Serial No. 329,635.

To all whom it may concern:

-of WVhitman, in the county of Plymouth and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cranberry-Separators, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to machines for separating or cleaning and sorting cranberries or other fruits which admit of handling in quantity.

The operation of the separators in common use is dependent on the elasticity of the berry and are so constructed that the berries fall a certain distance upon a slanting board when the sound berries bounce over a hurdle and the decayed or defective ber ries not being able to bounce over the hurdle slide off the board into a separate receptacle. If the cranberries were all spherical and there were only badly decayed berries to take out the operation of these machines might be satisfactory in spite of the rough handling but most varieties of cranberries are oblong or more or less pear shaped and some are almost pointed sothat the height which they will bounce is determined by what part of the berry strikes the board when it falls. For this reason the berries which fail to get over .the hurdles on the first bounce are passed over several bounces which tends to injure the berries and still leaves a large percentage of sound berries among the decayed ones. Berries when picked often include many which have been frozen and many of these and also some of the decayed berries bounce exactly the same as some of the sound berries and are usually picked out by hand. This is so expensive that when there are many frosted berries on a bog no berries are picked making the crop a total loss.

The object of my invention is to provide a machine that will take out all of the soft berries and do away with hand sorting altogether or to reduce hand sorting to taking out berries that are off color or have small spots of rotnot large enough to soften the the berry, and to grade the berries as to size, and to this end consists in passing the berries through a screen to grade them as to size and then placing-each berry in a pocket having a wide slot cut through it so that if the berry flattens when pressure is applied it will slip out of the pocket and be carried to a waste receptacle but the sound berry resisting the pressure is carried along in the pocket and falls out into a receptacle for good berries, in other words I test the berries as to their resistance to deformation and discard those which will not resist a predetermined pressure without flattening, and in other improvements which will be hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims.

In the embodiment of my invention herein described, and shown in the drawings forming a part of this specification,

Figure 1 is a side view of my machine,

Fig. 2 is an end'view of same,

Fig. 8 shows an enlargedend view of a section of my sorter and shows its cooperating parts and *ig. 4 is side view of the sorter showing additional details;

In all the figures the sameletters represent the same orcorresponding parts, and some parts are omitted for the sake of clearness.

a is the frameofthe machine, 6 the bin into which the berries are poured passing through the screen, 6 shown by dotted line, which removes most of the vines and other coarse matter that may have been scooped up when the berries were picked. The berries fall on the fluted roll and are carried by it, driven by the belt b between the elastic apron b and the roll and fall to the inclined board I). As they fall the leaves, dirt and dried berries are blown out by the fan 0 operated by belt 0 in the case 0. From the inclined board 6 the berries roll into the trough c and to the chute c which delivers them into the upper end of the inclined grading cylinder 03. The cylinder (Z is made of wire mesh or other material with openings growing larger toward its lower end, the one shown is divided into three sections d (Z and d the mesh of each section being coarser than that of the preceding one. Any stones or other matter that does not get out of the cylinder through the mesh is discharged at the end into the chute 9. When the berries go through the mesh of the cylinder they fall into the hopper 7 which is divided into three "sections the same as the cylinder and feeds the separating cylinder h. The separating cylinder h is revolved by gear k which meshes with the gear 6 on the shaft 6? turned by the crank handle 6' on the pulley e which drives the belt b The shaft 6 also carries the pulley e which by the belt 6 drives the conveyer belt The bottom of the hopper f is open to the cylinder h on which the berries rest as shown in Fig. 3.

The separator cylinder is composed of a series of washer like rings or disks 77, having numerous half pockets 7L2 opening into their periphery and are spaced by the collars 7L3 and held together to make a complete cylinder by the bolts 7L4. These disks are set so that the pockets in adjacent disks are complementary and form a pocket having a wide slot through its center. These pockets vary in size in each section of the hopper and are the right size to coi'itain one berry that has passed through the grading cylinder. The disks are cut away to below the depth of the pockets at all points except at their periphery and V a ridge around the pockets and at the collars, as shown in sec tion in Fig. 4. The berries in the hopper rest on cylinder h and as it revolves fall one into each pocket, while the berries in the hopper are protected from injury as the cylinder revolves by the elastic apron 71. reinforced by the Hat springs 72/. As the berries are carried along in the pockets as shown in Fig. 3 they come in contact with the sorter bar it which is normally in position shownby the dotted lines with the stop it resting on the cylinder and held yieldingly in place by the spring h the tension of which is adjusted by the screws and h. If the berries are sound they lift the sorter bar as shown by solids and pass along in the pockets until they are gently forced out by the ejector bar h and fall into the boxes m each size by itself. The ejector bar is bolted to the guard i which protects the conveyer belt 2', when a berry that is soft from frost or decay is carried in a pocket and comes in contact with the sorter bar it flattens into the space between the disks and slides out "of the pocket as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 3 and falls upon the conveyer belt 71, as indicated by 7' which moves through the center of the cylinder and is carried along and de posited outside of the machine.

Many modifications of the construction shown may be made without departing from the scope of my invention, as for instance the shape or arrangement of the pockets, the pockets may be placed in a belt instead of a cylinder, or a roll may be used in place of the sorter bar shown. By the term pocket I include any means for spacing the berries so that pressure may be applied on each berry by itself.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. In a cranberry separator the combination of, means for grading the berries, pockets to receive the berries as graded, means for applying pressure on the berries when in the pockets, means for adjusting said pressure means, said pockets being formed to permit berries which are deformed by the pressure to. slip out, means for conveying away said deformed berries, and means for ejecting the sound berries from the pockets.

2. In a cranberry separator the combination of, pockets to receive the berries, means for applying pressure on the berries when in the pockets, said pockets being formed to permit berries which are deformed by said. pressure to slip out, means for conveying away the defective berries, and means for ejecting the sound berries from the pockets.

8. In a cranberry separator the combination of, pockets to receive the berries, means for applying pressure on the berries when in the pockets, said pockets being formed to permit berries which are deformed by said pressure to slip out, and means for ejecting the sound berries from the pockets.

4:. In a cranberry separator the combination of, pockets to receive the berries, and means for applying pressure-on the berries when in the pockets, said pockets being formed to permit berries which are deformed by said pressure to slip out.

5. In a cranberry separator the combination of means for grading the berries, pockets to receive the berries, means for applying pressure to the berries when in the pockets, means cooperating with said pressure means to remove from the pockets berries which do not resist said pressure, means for removing the sound berries from the pockets, a belt to carry away the rejected berries. and means for operating said belt.

6. In a cranberry separator the combination of, pockets to receive the berries, means for applying pressure to the berries when in the pockets, means cooperating with said pressure means to remove from the pockets berries which do not resist said pressure, means lfor removing the sound berries from the pockets, a belt to carry away the rejected berries, and means for operating said belt.

7. In a cranberry separator the combination of, pockets to receive the berries,

means for applying pressure to the berries when in the pockets, means cooperating with said pressure means to remove from the pockets berries which do not \IBSlSt said pressure, and means for removing the sound berries from the pockets.

8. In a cranberry separator the combination of, pockets to receive the berries, means for applying pressure to the berries when in the pockets, and means cooperating with said pressure means to remove from the pockets berries which do not resist said pressure.

9. In a cranberry separator the combination of, pockets to receive the berries,

means for applying pressure to the berries while in the pockets, means cooperating with said pressure means to remove from the pockets berries which do not resist said pressure.

10. In a cranberry separator the combination of, a cylinder having perforations of different sizes for grading berries, a cylinder having pockets pierced by a wide slot to receive the berries as graded, means for pushing the soft berries through said slots, and means for ejecting the "sound berries.

11. In a cranberry separator the combination of, a cylinder having perforations of different sizes for grading the berries, a cylinder having pockets to receive the berries as graded, and means for pushing the soft berries from the pockets.

12. In a cranberry separator the combination of, a cylinder having perforations for grading berries, a cylinder having pockets to receive the berries as graded, and means for applying pressure to said berries.

13. A cranberry separator consisting of pockets to receive the berries, said pockets being formed to allow soft berries to slip through under pressure, means for applying pressure to said berries, and an ejector bar to remove sound berries from the pockets.

14. A cranberry separator consisting of pockets to receive the berries, said pockets being formed to allow soft berries to slip through them under pressure, a sorter bar to apply pressure to said berries, and means for adjusting the pressure on said bar.

15. In a cranberry separator the combination of, pockets in which the berries are placed, means for applying pressure to the berries, and means for automatically removing berries which are deformed by said pressure means.

16. In a cranberry separator the combination of, means for testing the berries as to resistance to deformation, and means for automatically removing the nonresistant berries.

17. I11 a cranberry separator the combination of, a cylinder composed of spaced disks having depressions on their sides opening into their periphery, the depressions in two adjacent disks forming a pocket to re ceive the berries, and means for forcing soft berries out of said pockets into the space between the disks.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature, in the presence of, two witnesses.

WALTER E. TRUFANT.

Witnesses:

ESTHER H. KING, HARRISON D. SoULE. 

